


déjà vu

by proletaricat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Diplomacy, Foreshadowing, Gen, Rated T for language, Star Trek Fusion, Star Trek References, voltron coalition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proletaricat/pseuds/proletaricat
Summary: Team Voltron finds themselves trying to convince a previously unknown planet to join the Coalition but they're having trouble - these new aliens won't do anything unless their God ordains it. Enter Lance, who knows a bit more than he's supposed to and doesn't know why.





	déjà vu

**Title:** deja vu  
**Trope Showcased:** Space Politics/Diplomatic Mission  
**Author:** anonymous  
**Rating:** Teen  
**Content:**  Gen, no ships except spaceships, Star Trek fusion, references to Deep Space Nine, Lance is Special  
**Warnings:**  No Archive Warnings Apply  
**Disclaimer:** All recognizable characters belong to Dreamworks, Netflix, the creators of Voltron, and associates. No copyright infringement intended.  
**Summary:** "Team Voltron finds themselves trying to convince a previously unknown planet to join the Coalition but they're having trouble - these new aliens won't do anything unless their God ordains it. Enter Lance, who knows a bit more than he's supposed to and doesn't know why."  
**Notes:** None

x

They’d had pretty good luck so far in convincing planets to join the Coalition. They had to use different techniques and adapt their message in different ways to appeal to their various audiences, but they had a near 100% success rate thus far.

It was exhausting, though, trying to figure out what they had to say to convince whatever new planet they were on that Voltron could protect them and that it was worth that planet’s time to put itself at risk. Allying yourself with Voltron and joining the Coalition planted a target on your back; it was a message to the Galra that they would have to fight the new planet and its forces as well as Voltron.

The planet they were on right now didn’t fancy the idea of being a target for Galra rage, and Allura became more and more frustrated as each day went by without commitment from the aliens to join the Coalition. Although she would never act on these fantasies, she somewhat enjoyed the passing thoughts of ‘maybe just have Voltron force them to join’ and ‘who cares, let the Galra explode this planet’.

Her determination to get this planet – named Ru’alia, as they just found out, since the Castleship had no record of them – was rooted not only in her deep desire to rid the universe of the Galra, but also because she _cared_. She didn’t know these people, the Ru’ali, but they didn’t deserve the fate that the Galra would have in store for them. The bone-deep need to convince them was what kept Allura and the Paladins on the planet.

x

When the Castleship first touched down on Ru’ali soil, they had been met with hostility and suspicion. After a few scans with what looked like some Star Trek tricorder to Lance, Team Voltron was deemed non-hostile and they were allowed to meet the planet leaders. Allura and Coran were allowed, anyway, and after day three of making no progress, the Alteans recruited Shiro as well.

It was day seven of no progress that the Paladins aboard the Castleship began to grow restless, nearly to the point of planning a jailbreak. Lance and Keith especially were going stir-crazy, not accustomed to sitting still for such long periods of time. Keith felt unsafe when he wasn’t constantly on the move and he felt _trapped_ , while Lance claimed boredom as the main reason he wanted to break them out of the Castleship.

Everyone was relieved when Allura and Shiro boarded the Castleship and invited the rest of the Paladins down to Ru’alia. “It seems we will be here longer than anticipated,” the princess started. Lance muttered a ‘no shit’ that Allura graciously chose to ignore before she continued. “The Ru’ali have invited us down and provided guides as well as a place for you all to stay while we are there.”

“The bad news is that they are confiscating our bayards,” Shiro said; he had volunteered to tell the team the news since they were less likely to lash out at him than they were Allura. There were groans all around – nobody wanted to hand over their weapons on a strange planet, but it seemed they had no choice.

x

While Shiro, Allura, and Coran still had to sit in on negotiations and meetings every day, the other Paladins were free to explore the city they were in. The scenery around them was rather beautiful, gleaming buildings nearly seeming to glow in the bright sunlight as it reflected off of the marble walls and golden embellishments. There was gold _everywhere_ , even the way the people dressed incorporated it.

While Pidge was normally distracted by technology, even she couldn’t look away from the glittering jewelry adorning the citizens of the city. Most seemed to have an ornate earring curling around the curve of their ear and dangling from the lobe. Each had different designs with one thing in common – they were made of gold.

“Too bad we don’t have any money,” Pidge said with a sigh. She kind of wanted one of the shiny earrings. Not to wear, of course, but to look at because she was a magpie and they were _pretty_.

Keith had been following behind his fellow Paladins with hands in his pockets, glancing around with mild interest. It was nice to be able to stretch his legs but besides the scenery he could see beyond the streets and buildings of the city, nothing held his attention for long.

Predictably, Hunk was flitting from food cart to food cart, his enthusiasm earning him more than a few free samples. He even managed a few exchanges – trading Earth recipes for Ru’ali.

As for Lance – he walked through the city with a strange feeling of déjà vu. He felt like he had _been_ here before, walked these streets, seen these people. Even after he realized how uncannily similar this race was to a different race in one of his favorite shows, he couldn’t erase the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he’d experienced this before.

x

The Paladins found themselves in a pub nearing the evening, the Alteans and Shiro still in meetings with leaders and diplomats. Lance felt bad for them to some degree, but mostly he was just glad the rest of the team wasn’t required to be present for the negotiations.

Team Voltron was relaxing at a table in the back corner, people-watching and enjoying their drinks. Non-alcoholic for Pidge, of course – Hunk made sure of that. An hour or so into their time there, Lance’s attention began to stray from the people. His eyes caught on a sign near their table, taped to the wall haphazardly. He frowned and leaned in, entranced by the interesting characters of the Ru’ali writing system. Lance trailed a finger over the letters and tilted his head, feeling dizzy for a moment. He hummed under his breath as he appreciated the beauty.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Pidge asked, scooting in her chair to see what had grabbed Lance’s interest. “What, can you read these weird squiggly lines?” Her teammate seemed to be focusing awfully hard on the letters. Obviously he couldn’t read them, this was the first time anybody had ever encountered these people, but—

“Uh, yeah, actually,” Lance said slowly.

Keith scoffed at Lance’s response. “Don’t lie, Lance. We get you like to talk yourself up but there’s no way.”

“No, seriously, I can – I mean, I don’t know _how_ , but I… it says… ‘Ru’alians… Have you… seen the signs’?” Lance’s reading was slow and a little uncertain, but his mind was able to decode the little symbols. “And um… then it says… ‘our Envoy is coming’, whatever that means. Ah, and the bottom line says ‘prepare’. Sounds kinda ominous.”

Nobody believed Lance, of course. There was no way he knew what it said.

Lance jumped as a Ru’alian from the table next to him turned their attention to him. They gestured toward the Paladins, giving them a curious look. “I’ve never seen your kind before.”

“Same,” Pidge responded. “We’re kinda new here.”

“Then how is it that this one can read our language?” the Ru’alian countered, indicating Lance.

The Paladins looked at each other as Lance sat up straighter, feeling vindicated. “Told you guys I could read it!”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Lance. You don’t even – we’ve never _been_ here before. Not even Allura knew of this place.”

The Blue Paladin shrugged, looking down at his hands. “That’s the thing… I mean, logically I _know_ I haven’t, but… I’ve got this weird gut feeling that I have.”

“Déjà vu, probably,” Hunk suggested.

“Yeah, maybe.” Lance wasn’t convinced, but all the information they had contradicted Lance’s strange feeling.

The Ru’alian that had been speaking to them ended up joining their table, curious to learn about these newcomers and being more than happy to answer the paladins’ various questions about Ru’ali culture.

x

x

The Alteans and Shiro were beyond frustrated.

“Princess, seriously, maybe we should give up,” Shiro said quietly, tired of negotiations that weren’t going anywhere.

“No, we must convince them.” Her voice was firm, decision resolute. She would not consider giving up. They _needed_ to convince the Ru’ali.

“Maybe we should ask the other paladins for help.” It was Coran giving suggestions this time. They had left the others out of the talks for various reasons – Keith would get frustrated, Pidge and Hunk distracted, and Lance… well, Lance was a wildcard.

Allura sighed, resigned. “It seems we have no choice but to ask them for their opinion.”

“Let’s go, then. Maybe we can get this over with.” Shiro stood, heading to the suite of rooms that they’d been housed in planet-side.

x

It took less time than they anticipated to fully debrief the rest of their team. They’d made less progress than they thought, apparently.

“So, if anybody has any suggestions…” Allura trailed off, looking at the Paladins expectantly. Pidge raised her hand slowly and Shiro smiled.

“You don’t need to raise your hand like you’re in class. Pidge. What is it?”

“Lance could read some of the weird Ru’ali writing,” she offered. Lance gave her a withering look – he _didn’t_ want to be brought into boring diplomatic meetings – but here she was, throwing him under the bus.

Coran blinked, leaning forward. “Fascinating,” he murmured. “Tell us more, Lance.”

The Paladin shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the unwanted attention. “Um… there’s not much to tell? I… I can read the language somehow. And, uh… this is kind of embarrassing to admit,” he murmured the last part quietly, running a hand through his hair nervously.

Keith groaned, rolling his eyes. “Come on, _nerd_ , just tell them.”

Lance glared but he spoke nonetheless. “So I’m like, a huge Star Trek fan – shut _up_ Keith, it’s not that funny!” He kicked at his teammate and Keith grabbed his leg, making Lance lose balance and tumble off the couch with a thump.

“Paladins,” Shiro said, voice flat. He was tired and he didn’t have time for this shit.

Lance gave him a sheepish look before continuing, _after_ climbing back onto the couch – far away from Keith this time. “Okay, so I’m… a big Star Trek fan, and I’ve noticed… the Ru’ali, uh… they’re really, _really_ similar to this race in the show? From Deep Space Nine, the Bajorans. Like, I’m talking… they look the same, the city looks super familiar, their spoken language even sounds the same… the only differences I’ve noticed so far have been what they call themselves.”

“Tell them about the religious stuff,” Hunk urged. Attention piqued, Allura’s gaze was intense as she watched Lance. That had been one of the big problems in their negotiations, an issue that they hadn’t mentioned to the team – the Ru’ali refused to do anything unless it was sanctioned by their gods – gods that the Ru’ali had no way of contacting save some sort of messiah person to act as a prophet for them.

“It’s – so we met a Ru’alian the other day in this pub, right? And we asked them a bunch of questions. And uh… what they said lined up almost _exactly_ with the Bajoran religion and some of the plot points of Deep Space Nine.”

“Like the – the Emissary of the Prophets part?” Shiro asked. Lance gave him a look of pleasant surprise. At least he wasn’t the _only_ Trekkie on the Castleship.

“Yeah, exactly. Except the Prophets are the Sentinels and the Emissary is the Envoy. The orb stuff, the Celestial Temple, all of that is the same. I mean, you’ve seen the tech, they even have _tricorders_.”

“Is that what those cool little scanning things are?”

“The ones they used on us to figure out whether or not we were some poisonous lizard people come to take over their planet? Yeah. Oh, hey,” Lance paused, exchanging a look with Shiro.

“Lizard people like the Cardassians.”

“Hmm, I wonder what the Cardassian-equivalent is in this star system. Clearly it isn’t the Galra, since the Ru’ali don’t seem particularly worried about that…”

“Focus,” Allura interrupted. She had no idea what they were talking about, but she could tell they had strayed from the purpose of this meeting. “The religious person – the Envoy – the Ru’ali were telling us that they can’t make a decision unless they consult with their gods, but the only way they could do that is through a long, drawn-out religious ceremony or via whoever this _Envoy_ is. They refuse to do the religious ceremony because they don’t see the point, and they have no idea who the Envoy of the Sentinels is. You can see the dilemma. Do you have suggestions as to how to convince them? Perhaps leveraging their religion?”

“I mean, I could pretend to be the Envoy or something,” Lance said with a shrug. It would be relatively easy for him – Deep Space Nine was his favorite Star Trek series and the Emissary plot arc was his favorite within the series. He knew it _very_ well. Being able to read their language helped too.

“It’s worth a shot. I can… help somewhat as well. I’ve, uh… seen Star Trek too.”

“More than once,” Keith supplied. “I’m pretty sure that’s the reason he joined the Garrison in the first place.”

“Looks like _you’re_ the loser then, Keith,” Lance taunted. “Even your best friend is a big nerd, and you’re all alone in your emo corner being the living embodiment of My Chemical Romance and trying to act cool.”

“I’m not _acting_ cool,” Keith snarked back. “I _am_ cool.”

Pidge snorted, covering up her laughter with a fake cough, and Hunk did the smart thing by refusing to get involved.

x

“Okay, so… how do we do this?”

Lance, Shiro, and Allura had decided to have a pre-meeting meeting in order to iron out the details and get their story straight.

“I dunno, I’ll just walk in and be like ‘yo, I’m the Envoy, go fight the Galra’?”

“Lance,” Allura responded with a sigh, “you cannot just – no, we have to make this convincing. Please be serious.”

“The Princess is right, Lance. Now – how do you want to do this?”

Lance groaned. Planning was _not_ his strong suit. “You guys come up with a story about how I started having some weirdo visions and then the Sentinels revealed to me that I was the Envoy, and then we prove it by having the answers to their questions.”

“What sort of visions?” Shiro prompted.

“Does it matter? Confusing visions. Mention something about the Tears of the Proph—the Sentinels. Tears of the Sentinels. They’re probably called the same thing. The little orb thingies, remember?” He looked to Shiro as he spoke, hoping he didn’t have to come up with all of this on his own.

“There’s one missing, right? Or there was.”

“Yeah, the Orb of the Emissary. I’m guessing there’s not a planet Tyree somewhere nearby, but maybe we can say we know where it is but we’ve gotta beat the Galra first.”

Allura didn’t feel the best about lying to the Ru’ali people, but if it was a choice between lying and earning their allyship, or telling the truth and losing hope… she would choose lying.

“This is all very confusing,” Allura said with a sigh. She would have to follow Lance’s lead, which she was rather wary of doing.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Lance said with a wink. “I’ll handle this and we’ll be zooming off to kick Galra tail in no time.”

That did nothing to help comfort her worries. If anything, it inflamed them. “Sure,” she responded, unconvinced.

x

Standing in the room with the Ru’ali diplomats was more intimidating than Lance had anticipated. He silently wished he had kept his mouth shut so he didn’t have to do this, didn’t have to lie to these people and risk being caught. He was fairly sure he could pull this off, but what if he couldn’t? Would he get jailed or something?

“You want us to believe… that you have suddenly discovered one of your crewmembers is the Envoy?” what looked like the leader asked, skepticism clear in her voice.

“Um… yes.” Allura did her best to come across as confident, but she still had her doubts and it was difficult for her to mask them.

“He’s just started having the visions,” Shiro supplied. Lance sat rigid between Allura and Shiro, hands folded in his lap as he tried not to grimace. He did not want to be here.

The leader – Dro Yizu as she was called – leaned back in her chair as she contemplated Lance. “And what are these visions of?”

Lance’s memory blanked out. Fuck, fuck, what were the visions? He felt his throat close up in a panic – he was going to be found out and jailed for lying and maybe murdered and he’d never see his Mama again or even be able to say goodbye to Kaltenecker, fuck, why had he even _said anything_ to Allura – he began to speak, mouth clearly not consulting with his brain before letting out the words. “They’re vague,” he started, and what? When had – how did he – this wasn’t the plan. “I see the planet in flames, the Celestial Temple closed and collapsed – the Tears lost to the enemy and hope extinguished.” Well, that was a little extreme, but it wasn’t like he _planned_ on saying that. His words seemed to pique the Dro’s interest, however.

“Go on.” She waved for him to continue.

“The Sentinels – they – you must assist Voltron in defeating the Galra or all shall be lost. The City of R’hala shall be revealed in time, the final orb reunited with the R’Ah’Allia, and the gates of the Celestial Temple shall be open to those who seek the wisdom of the Sentinels.”

Allura and Shiro were giving Lance a shocked look, and Lance felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. Where had those words _come from_? That wasn’t the plan – those words just _happened_.

“Dro Yizu, listen to your Envoy; he shall lead the R’Ah’Allia to victory and safety.” And there he went again – speaking words before he was even aware he was speaking. Lance felt a little dizzy with the way the Dro was looking at him, or was it from something else? He looked up at the ceiling, trying to will the nausea away. That powerful sense of déjà vu returned and Lance had to close his eyes. What the hell was that?

The room was silent for a few ticks before the Dro spoke.

“The Ru’ali people will align with Voltron and join the Coalition, as the Sentinels request.”

Shiro and Allura stared at the Dro in shock while Lance tried not to pass out.

“The Envoy shall lead our fleet.”

“Your – your fleet?” Allura didn’t know what Dro Yizu meant. The Ru’ali leader gave Allura a curious look – how did the Altean not know?

“They will fight alongside,” Lance said, and he was frustrated that he kept speaking without meaning to. “My people are capable of intergalactic travel and have experience fighting foreign aggressors.” _His_ people? The Dro nodded, affirming Lance’s information.

And so the Ru’ali assigned a large fleet of battle-capable ships along with experienced crew to fly alongside the Castleship in its fight to remove the Galra from power.

x

“You are a better actor than I thought,” Allura commended, pleased with the results. Lance smiled, appreciating the compliment though he wasn’t completely sure whether or not he was actually acting.

“Yeah, no problem…”

It wasn’t until Shiro and Lance were alone that the Black Paladin cornered the Blue. “What was with that? _Your_ people? Lance, you didn’t have to go that far with it.”

“That’s the thing, Shiro,” he said after a moment. He couldn’t keep secrets, not from Shiro. “I’m not entirely sure that was… just an act. I mean – I can – how can I even read the language? I just… I feel really weird about all of this. We already know there are alternate realities, what if…”

Shiro placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “You haven’t actually received any visions, Lance. You were probably just really nervous.”

“Yeah, probably,” Lance agreed, though that thought still didn’t sit well with him. He had to put that thought out of his mind, though – they had Galra tail to kick.

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of [VLD Tropes Fest](http://vldtropesfest.tumblr.com) | Comments and Kudos are appreciated | Anonymous creators will be revealed after the masterlist is posted!


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